New size: At 7.6mm in depth and 112 grams, the new handset will be 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the predecessor.

Bigger screen: A taller
(but not wider) 4-inch Retina Display at 1136 x 640-pixel resolution,
which allows for additional row of app icons on the homescreen.

4G/LTE: Across all the
carriers — Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. We don’t yet know what kind of
pricing or surcharges may be involved however. Also on board: Support
for HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA networks, dual-channel WiFi, 802.11a/b/g/n and
2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency spectrums.

A6 processor: Apple reports it is twice as fast as the previous A5 (which incidentally is being put into the newest iPod touch).

Camera: On the rear
camera, there’s the same number of megapixels as the iPhone 4S — 8MP —
but it now comes with panorama mode, faster photo capture, sapphire
crystal lens, backside illumination, hybrid IR filter, a five-element
lens, f/2.4 aperture, spatial noise reduction and a dynamic low-light
mode. Notably, the new phone will allow for simultaneous image and video
capture, just like many Android devices do.

iOS 6 (of course), plus Siri support for launching apps

FaceTime over cellular networks

New dock connector:
Enter “Lightning,” Apple’s newest connection standard that’s 80 percent
smaller than the previous 30-pin version. (The company will also be
offering adaptors so the new device will still work with old
accessories.)

Better battery life: 8
hours of talk time (3G), 8 hours of web browsing over 4G/LTE, 10 hours
of video, 40 hours of music playback and 225 hours of playtime.

Dates: Pre-orders start
this Friday, 9/14, and devices will ship on September 21 in the
U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and
Singapore. More countries will join in the availability list on the
28th, with a total of 100 countries getting it by the end of the year.